T he fastest electric car in the world was launched this week in London. The company behind the car, NextEV, is, unsurprisingly, Chinese, and it has its sights on becoming the next Tesla.

William Li, its founder, unveiled the car alongside its new brand, Nio, hence we have the Nio EP9, a £1 million hypercar with 1,300bhp (or one megawatt, in today’s language). It will accelerate to 124mph in 7.1sec and has smashed the lap record at the Nürburgring for an electric car, with 7min 5sec. And it also monitors the heart rates of both driver and passenger.

Get used to seeing the Nio badge: unlike past Chinese attempts to take on the global car market, Nio has the hallmarks of success.

The EP9 lapped the daunting Nurburgring circuit in 7m 5sec to set a new record for electric cars

While Chinese brands such as LandWind have made huge profits through essentially ripping off existing European cars, Nio is an innovative, global company, with investor backing from Tencent, Sequoia Capital and Lenovo among others, and 2,000 staff from all over the world, including recruits from Google and Facebook. The EP9 has been designed in Munich, technically developed in San Jose and finished in China.

A brief look at the brains behind NextEV should also make people sit up and take notice: Li is an internet entrepreneur with fingers in many successful pies (40 automotive and digital companies), including Bitauto.com. One of his first hirings at NextEV was Padmasree Warrior, the former CTO of Cisco, who has described the company’s mission as “to change transportation”. You wouldn’t bet against it.

Cementing the company’s successes was clinching the first Formula E Drivers’ Championship last year, with Nelson Piquet Jr. The EP9 is the first road car (in the loosest sense) to emerge from the research and development trickle-down from Formula E, something much larger manufacturers, such as Audi and now Jaguar, have joined in.

Although it's very much a performance car, the EP9 will inform the creation of smaller urban and autonomous cars

If you’re still not convinced about Nio’s credentials as the Chinese Tesla, NextEV will soon begin autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the US. Of course, the EP9 (which, by the way, went from conception to manufacture in 18 months) is just the halo car that will lead Nio down the path to mass-market electric, autonomous cars for everyone.

In other words, everywhere you start to look in the world of electric vehicles, Nio and its NextEV parent company are ahead of the game. “We are the next-generation car company,” said Li at the launch.

The EP9's minimalist interior

“It’s a lifestyle brand, more than a car company,” said an executive. Both statements would have elicited guffaws from journalists not long ago, but how the landscape has changed: ask any teenager to name their top 10 car brands, and companies such as Uber and Apple are in there: cars are becoming about a lifestyle.

So maybe Nio is the next-generation car company, maybe it is all about “Blue Sky Coming”, the company’s slightly jarring corporate commitment, and Chinese translation of Nio.

Overhead view showing the battery packs

“We believe that when the car ownership experience exceeds expectations, electric vehicles will become the natural choice for everyone, leading to a more sustainable tomorrow. And with that, our vision of a blue sky will come true,” said Li at the launch.

Marketing guff, of course, but the long farewell to petrol and diesel has begun.